Belonging to the sponge gourd family well technically the Curcurbitacaeae or cucumber
family you know the one people make unnecessary sculptures out of and don’t get me started
on cauliflower, this beast I’m holding here… sorry about that wrong one is the Thai extra-long
sponge gourd.
Grown on a herbaceous vine these massive gourds can get as long as 6.5 feet or 2 meters.
Both the gourd and the seeds are edible but typically the seeds are removed as they don’t
offer up the nicest texture.
Having a thick green more typically dark green if grown somewhere tropical like Thailand
as the name suggests vs the homeland of yeti where I live in Canada a lighter green specimen
or non fully developed sponge gourd is what you’ll get….
But I’ll take the bragging points for growing a tropical vegetable in Canada.
This fast-growing vine can grow up to 1.4 inches or 3.5 cm a day and will trellis up
to 15 feet or 4.5 meters tall or about the height of a yeti.
This vine produces an abundant crop of gourds, my plant had over a dozen of them growing
on it at once, all of them died except one, we need don’t need to talk about that, so
it is possible to grow these... outside of the tropics.
This gourd has a creamy inner texture with a unique taste, not favored yetis, which is
typically only consumed when the fruit is young which is either eaten raw or cooked.
They are used in the same application where you’d use zucchini, squash or okra.
Most commonly used in stir-fries, stews and soups as well as curries, chutneys or any
dish that can accommodate a 6-foot long vegetable you know like… no other vegetable, the thai
sponge gourd will soak in large volume of flavors making it a great filler ingredient.
Traditionally enjoyed with sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic and chili pepper it is also
sometimes stuffed like a stuffed pepper.
Raw slices are added to salads or sometimes deep-fried and eaten as a snack.
The flowers and buds can also be consumed usually in a salad.
As these fruits over ripen they’ll turn brown and start to mold, they only last up
to 5 days in the refrigerator before they start getting nasty.
These mature fruits can be used as a luffa or luffa sponge for cleaning in the bathroom
or for grandpa’s calloused feet, which is basically a sponge gourd overdeveloped and
dried out with the seeds removed by smacking you know high tech stuff here these luffa
sponges.
Grown year-round in tropical places like Thailand, but the origin of the sponge gourd itself
comes from somewhere in Asia no one really knows, except maybe the yeti because they
live forever, but it is suspected to come from India, Myanmar or the Philippines.
In Indian ayurvedic medicine…..ahh.. that’s the one, the fruit is used to treated skin
disease, intestinal worms, swellings and as a blood purifier, greetings… you called?
Juice from this vegetable is also used as a cure for jaundice.
They high in fiber, riboflavin, zinc, thiamine, iron, magnesium, vitamin a and c and are antifungal,
antibacterial and is an antioxidant-rich vegetable.
The Thai extra-long sponge gourd produces fewer, a lot fewer seeds then average sponge
gourd, you know these little guys… no these little guys, thus making this vegetable a
lot more rare.
Growing these in a place like Canada these seeds can take anywhere from a week to two
months to germinate and it is advised to grow them indoors until they are a foot long before
planting them into the ground around early May.
In my case, I just planted them in the ground as I knew the yeti was in hibernation and
yogi wouldn’t be able to get into my compound but I did end up with an almost full length
but didn’t fully developed Thai sponge gourd.
The Thai extra-long sponge gourd is similar yet different to the Luffa cylindrica.
The Cylindrica is another long sponge gourd but isn’t edible in it’s young state and
doesn’t produce as an effective luffa sponge.
They also require military gardeners to grow them so if that isn’t you then don’t even
think about growing this one.
If you want to get your hands on a natural luffa sponge or seeds to grow either the Thai
or cylindrica sponge gourds links are in the description and any purchases made to support
what I do on this channel.
Now it’s time for you to watch whatever random video youtube has suggested here and
until the next one have a good one.